State

Rayagada: A pall of gloom descended on Matikana village in Rayagada district today after firefighters fished out bodies of two school children from a village pond. The deceased, identified as Sunil Himirika and Aresh Himirika, were students of Class III and Class II respectively.

As per reports, after returning from school yesterday, both the children kept their bags at their home and later went missing. Subsequently, family members of the children started a search operation but failed to trace them. Later when a few locals found school uniforms near the pond, they informed the Fire Department following which firefighters rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation. After an hour of search, bodies of both the children were recovered from the pond.While the bodies have been sent for post-mortem, it is being suspected that the incident happened when the kids were taking bath in the pond.'We recovered the body from a pond. Later, the bodies were sent to the hospital for autopsy,' a fire tender Pitambar Dani said.